The Teaologist

Backlog:

I wasn’t all that impressed with my first infusion of this tea. It was alright, but just alright. Kind of “meh” … you know?

Then I brewed the tea a second time. (Not a resteep of the leaves.) This tea benefited from not reading the package steeping parameters and going with my own “go to” steeping parameters for a white tea. 160°F for 5 – 7 minutes. It’s much taster than the suggested 180°F for 2 – 3 minutes.

Good hot, but much better cold. Sweet berry goodness and a nice creamy tone. I love the notes of pomegranate in there too. A really tasty tea.

Backlog:

This has an interesting balance of peppermint, lemongrass and chamomile. Soothing … but at the same time, invigorating! The combination of flavors is really refreshing. Fresh, sweet, crisp … enjoyable.

I’m not always excited about tisanes, but this one is not bad. I’d drink it again.

This is a backlog and also a forward log and also a sipdown too! (153)

I drank it a week ago, with a bit of vodka and a touch of agave and it was fantastic. Iced too. (In case you thought it was hot).

The rest of it I made popsicles with and I’ll have to try them out tomorrow!

Backlog (from this past week). Yum, yum yum. Creamy, butterscotch/vanilla strawberry tea. I’d like more of this one, please. :D

So… potentially but thankfully not super gross story…

I went to have a cup of this tea the other day, and discovered a huge lump of… something in my bag. I hadn’t previously noticed it. The lump was covered in fuzzies from the tea, and was slightly squishy… unsurprisingly I was quite grossed out. My best guess was that it was a wad of gum or something. Anyhow, I ended up getting up the nerve to take it out of the bag and cut it in half… and lo and behold, it was just a large dehydrated strawberry!! Whew! So crisis averted, and I had a cup of this tea :D

(So basically, if you pick up some of this tea and find something “foreign” in it, fear not, odds are good it’s just a strawberry!)

Another rather old backlog to get to :)

I am a bit addicted to this tea, I’ll admit… it’s one I’d probably like to have often. It seems that when a white blend is done right, it’s absolutely amazing, and this is one of those. (Of course, Butiki white blends also fall into that category.) Anyhow, pretty much the same impression of this one as last time, except that I noted that the second infusion was very vanilla-y – which is only a good thing!! I think there are actual vanilla bean specks in this tea, which may be what makes the difference between it and teas with vanilla flavouring. Mmmmmm, delicious!

Apologies for all the tasting notes… it’s the week’s backlog that I’m only just getting to. Sigh.

Anyhow! This tea smells delicious, and tastes equally delicious. It’s possibly one of the most caramelly teas I’ve had to date, mixed with a hint of orange that’s more prominent on the initial sip than the swallow. I’m not picking up on the white tea specifically, but I believe that it’s adding some complexity here. It took me a while to figure it out, but this tea reminds me of Butiki’s Creamy Eggnog tea – which is certainly high praise! Definitely delicious. Also – it lasts for an additional infusion or two, which is great!

I just saw Sil’s review of this and I realised that I forgot to do mine weeks ago! I recieved this as part of my Amoda tea box, which was a little disappointing because 2/3 teas were herbal. I’m sure that won’t happen again though.

Anyways, this one is pretty basic, and while I don’t mind the ingredients I find that I prefer DavidsTea’s Mother’s Little Helper more due to the added make-you-go-to-sleep-valerian-root on top of the lemongrass, mint and chamomile.

I made two cups of this, and then put the rest of my sample in with my DT tin.

SIPDOWN! because my other half totally drank a cup of this with me haha Thanks to kittenna for a sample of this one. To me? this is just another average ordinaryl chamomile tea. it’s got some mint, some chammomile…nothing too exciting, nothing too bad. Just a kills my brew basket if i forget and use it lol

Third and final Amoda tea box tea. Definitely not a tea that’s up my alley. In fact, just add some licorice, and you’ll have my worst nightmare! I don’t like mint, don’t usually care for lemongrass, and am iffy on chamomile, which are the three ingredients here.

Luckily, this tea is not as bad as I expected. I’m really not tasting lemongrass or chamomile, but they’re obviously tempering the peppermint to a level that I can handle. That said, there are many, many other teas I’d much prefer to drink rather than this one. This is the only tea that I’m a bit disappointed about from the Amoda box, because it’s so basic and simple (and I happen to hate the ingredients), but, I did sign up to get random teas, so that’s just the way it is!